The very first time I ever was paid to write software, in 1982, I asked my client to tell me what he wanted. Then I gave that to him, and he complained he didn

The very first time I ever was paid to write software, in 1982, I asked my client to tell me what he wanted. Then I gave that to him, and he complained he didn't like it. He really wanted something else. He was bad at saying what he wanted, and he was bad at knowing what he wanted. There is an old saying (I think from Jerry Weinberg): Make it possible for people to write programs in plain English, and you will find they are not able to write plain English. The reason you need an intermediary is because you don't have the patience or training to completely specify your system. And if you don't completely specify it, then you are just going to get what everyone else gets. (If you DO have the pateince and training, then congratulations you are an engineer.) If you are content with getting something generic, then you don't even need to write software in the first place, just download Word!